𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙗 | 𝙥. 𝙟𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣

₀₄

When Astrid expected to see Percy soon, she wasn't expecting to see him the night of the very same day, half-alive after a monster encounter with Grover in tow. Oh, how excitable the universe was.

Being a good friend, she volunteered to take care of him on his journey to recovery than to strain their healers from Apollo cabin. Surprising her was Annabeth, who volunteered to assist her. She knew the girl had some other motive but was glad she accepted help in the end after having to dab at his drool for the nth time.

Percy kept slipping in and out of consciousness in his sleep, mumbling nonsense that not even Astrid can make sense of. She knew he got lucid enough one time though, when she went out to wash the towels and refresh the supply, leaving Annabeth alone with the boy. Hearing frantic voices just next door, she hurried back to check how Percy was doing, only to see Annabeth pestering the barely awake Percy with questions. He immediately went back to sleep just as Astrid reached his bedside.

"You have terrible bedside manners." Astrid huffed at Annabeth.

"Don't blame me, he could be the answer to everything!"

"And he's just as clueless as us, darling. Don't blame him if he isn't the answer to everything. You're a child of Athena, you're supposed to be smarter than that." Astrid chastised her, folding the towels and sorting them on a spare bed.

"And you're a daughter of Aphrodite who asked me for fighting lessons earlier, people can be very versatile."

"I don't see how you connected those, but sure."

Annabeth let out a groan as she scooped more stray pudding from the unconscious boy's lips.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

The day Percy woke up from his slumber, Silena was relentless about keeping to the schedule, especially after learning of Astrid's new 'responsibilites' to their mother to train with her weapons. She saw them pass by the arena where she was sparring with Silena but resisted with the glare her older sister was giving her, it practically screamed 'in another time, I would have encouraged this but not now'. Couldn't even wave to get his attention, too busy not to give in and yield to Silena pushing her to her limits.

Stepping out of the shower after washing away the sweat from their spar, Astrid wasn't surprised with the buzz in Cabin 10. They were terrible gossips and no newbie was going to be spared from them. Not even at the fact that the subject was her best friend who was a trouble magnet.

Taking her hair out of the towel to air dry, she took a seat at the edge of her bed and gestured Lacy, their youngest sibling who was only nine, to sit beside her and to spill. Astrid combed her fingers through the girl's hair and began an intricate braid.

"Okay so, you know Clarisse? Ares' kid. She was gonna give the kid a swirly, and the boy was like ready to fight, you know, fists raised and all, but he didn't even have the chance. She had him in a headlock and took 'im to the dirty public showers. His head was almost in when suddenly the water burst everywhere around them! He even took out her other siblings without doing anything! Poor Annabeth though, she wasn't spared from the toilet water." Lacy let out a shudder.